Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[math ace]

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[pinkchick]

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Thank You Luanne!!!! You are SUPER DUPER!

 

[pinkchick]

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X 347,000

GREAT Incubating and Hatching Vibes coming your way!

 

[pinkchick]

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PINK You are gonna so love cpartist's BLRW. They are drop dead gorgeous!
I

get the computer screen wet with drool every time I think about them.
The roos are so beautiful there is NO Way you could eat the the Extras. . .

I know! Aren't they SWEET! I am really only hoping for one blue and one splash pullet for myself, the others (depending on hatch) I will be sharing with dear friends that have been wanting these beauties for a long time. I think my best friend will fall so in love with the roosters that she won't be able to part with one if we get one. I don't think she understands this yet.

Just like when she fell in love with Marans....... at first she just couldn't understand when she first met me how I could love the Marans sooooo much until she got hers, then it hit her like a big red sign.

Then she abandoned her Black Coppers (Wade Jeane...beautiful birds and they laid spectacular eggs) and she went straight to Wheatens. She couldn't be happier with her decision. One day I will get her to share her beautiful Wheatens....one day!

 

[gilavina]

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The challenge is you don't have any corresponding roosters with the pattern do you?
For lacing to be clean and complete you need a pair of the Pg pattern genes, plus what ever other modifying gene is there for the lace type you are going for.
I cannot tell from the picture what pattern is present - penciling, or lacing. In some pictures it looks like there is a bit of each present, plus what looks like autosomal barring in the tail.

So there are some gene missing from the necessary "pairs". You may get what you're looking for by just doubling up the Pg gene. But since you don't have a rooster that carries it, you'd have to breed one first. Since your hens are blue you could cross them with a blue birchen Marans, but crossing to solid blue is risky because you could introduce the "gold" gene that would take away the white head and neck from your girls and replace it with tan or copper. This would also happen if you use Copper Blue.

A regular Silver Birchen Marans would work too. And then you'd have to cross the rooster with the best pattern back to your hens to try to double it up in the offspring. The challenge is that often the pattern doesn't show well on roosters, so it might be your best guess which ones carry the Pg gene. I think you'd be able to tell though which ones do and which ones don't. Genes in most purebred birds are carried in pairs, but one of the genes in your girls' pair of Pg genes is "switched off", or is replaced with the "non-pattern" gene. Because of that, your hens' offspring cannot all have the Pg gene because when she donates half her DNA to the offspring, some of them will get the switched off non-pattern version and some will get the active Pg gene that gives the lacing. So only half your roosters produced will have Pg. Of the ones with pattern, it doesn't matter if he's black or blue since your girls are blue aren't they? If they are not all blue, then you'd want your roo to have the lacing in blue.

Sad thing is that I think way back last spring when I first got her, I did get a cockerel with that batch...and from what you've described he would have possibly worked as a match for her. Hmmmm...problem is I no longer have him.
Those two hens with that pattern are a black...I would eventually like to see if I could get them in blue and black both, but would be happy if I could work on the black pattern... I know the blue birchen boy I have has both silver and gold genes since he has some gold in his hackle and saddle feathers. I do have a black birchen boy too...from what I can see he presents as all silver. So, it sounds like he might be my best option. This is certainly more complicated than I first thought, mostly because I haven't really thought much about the finer details of it, since I wasn't ready to set up my breeding pens yet.
Thank you so, so much for writing this all out for me and making it so easy to understand.

I guess i will have to just jump in and do a test mating and see how it goes. It will certainly be challenging and hopefully I will be able to make some progress. I'm going to be filing your posts in a safe place so I can easily find it for reference. Luckily I have quite a few people on a waiting list for "pretty" birds to add to their laying pen. So, I will have a use for the pullets that come out that don't have what I'm looking for.

 

[pinkchick]

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Hi HenThymes!

I am not sure what to say and don't want to say the wrong thing or mislead you so maybe we can get Geebs, VillageChicken, Wynette, Ms. Bev Davis, Snowbird, Walt and all the other greats that I know am I missing to come by and start up a discussion on them for us. It's always interesting to see how they mature, we can all learn a great deal I think from them. Thank you for sharing them and keeping us updated and giving all the opportunity to learn along with you.

I'm sure someone will come along soon.

 

[gilavina]

Morning everyone!

Well, I survived the impatience and have made it to lockdown day with no adverse side effects of said impatience. Here's to hoping that I will be able to survive the lockdown itself! I am crossing my fingers like crazy I will have a good hatch....

 

[snowbird]

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Hi HenThymes!

I am not sure what to say and don't want to say the wrong thing or mislead you so maybe we can get Geebs, VillageChicken, Wynette, Ms. Bev Davis, Snowbird, Walt and all the other greats that I know am I missing to come by and start up a discussion on them for us. It's always interesting to see how they mature, we can all learn a great deal I think from them. Thank you for sharing them and keeping us updated and giving all the opportunity to learn along with you.

I'm sure someone will come along soon.

Hi Kim, it is really hard for me to comment on these young mix breed fowl. Looks like some just threw a bunch of different Marans and other breeds in a pen and sold what came along. The yellow green legs say mix breeds. I see a wheaten colored male. No way these all came from cuckoo matings. Don

 

[HenThymes]

That is my thought's too. I am just learning about maran's but know enough to know they sure don't have bright yellow legs!

And the brown one, yeah, definitely not cuckoo..

The only good thing about this learning experience is the I did not come out of pocket (thankfully) for them, it was an egg trade.

So let me ask this, the ones that are cuckoo patterned and have white legs, is it safe to say they are marans or too much of an assumption??

There is also the cuckoo getting gold in the hackle and saddle area, is he gold or just another cross??

Thanks for any help.

 

[sewandgrow]

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Good luck with your hatching. It is all so eciting. You better watch yourself or you may get hooked like so many others of us.....LOL